It’s fair to say that last season was very much a story of two halves. Roy Hodgson’s reign at Anfield was mercifully brief and once he departed and former owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett were replaced by the Fenway Sports Group, things began to look more rosy in the Liverpool garden.

The first half of the season was clearly something of a monstrosity as the Merseyside club lurched from one disaster to another. A number of new additions appeared unable to adapt to life in the Premier League with the likes of Milan Jovanovic and Christian Poulsen looking woeful, the same could be said of Joe Cole and Paul Konchesky.

The lows that Liverpool fans will long to forget would come in the form of a Carling Cup exit to Northampton, at home, and the defeat at Anfield by Blackpool quickly followed by a lifeless loss at Goodison Park against local rivals Everton. Even a win against reigning Premier League champions Chelsea could not disguise the slump the club were in.

Kenny Dalglish turned the ship around and the club just missed out on a Europa League spot, which may actually be in the clubs favour in the long term. A number of players upped their game from January onwards, most notably midfielders Lucas and Raul Meireles got going and a run of 10 wins in 15 matches from mid January to early May showed what the Scot could do with a fairly average squad.

The summer was clearly then all about making improvements ahead of a concerted push to break back into the coveted top four race.